<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>I Dreamt About a Friend Tonight (In The Spaces Between The Stars) by Maple_Maypole</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23282311">I Dreamt About a Friend Tonight (In The Spaces Between The Stars)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maple_Maypole/pseuds/Maple_Maypole'>Maple_Maypole</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Azu baby you deserve the world, Canon-typical ouchies, Grieving, Prompt: confessions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 10:01:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>545</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23282311</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maple_Maypole/pseuds/Maple_Maypole</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Azu never really said it. Not out loud, at least.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Azu &amp; Sasha Racket, Azu/Sasha Racket</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>RQG Femslash Week 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I Dreamt About a Friend Tonight (In The Spaces Between The Stars)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A moonlit ocean is a beautiful thing to behold, Azu thinks. Unfathomably dark and in constant movement, it occasionally seems to glow.</p><p>She takes a big swig of her drink and lets her back hit the sand. She can feel the cold through her clothes and lets it make its way under her skin and into her bones until she feels a slight ache in her joints. The cool breeze makes her skin sting and she tastes the salt in her tongue with every breath.</p><p>Azu simply allows it all to happen.</p><p>She looks up at the collection of stars above her head. She hears the slow rolling of the waves, and beneath it she hears the nighttime silence of Cel's village. She digs her fingers in the sand and feels it give around her nails.</p><p>They're all telling her stories, she thinks. The stars twinkle in response.</p><p>Azu closes her eyes. After a little while, she thinks she feels someone settle next to her, feels a whisper of warmth against her side.</p><p>"Hello," Azu says, barely above a breath.</p><p>Her new companion doesn't speak. Azu doesn't need them to.</p><p>She already knows who it is.</p><p>"How have you been?" Silence, except for the slow whisper of the tide. "I have been…"</p><p>She trails off. Considers the darkness under her eyelids.</p><p>"Hamid is still looking for you, you know. Not right now, there is… A lot, happening. But he hasn't given up."</p><p>If Azu opened her eyes, she would see the slow shifting dance of a million stars looking down at her.</p><p>She could grab all their light in her hands and search the spaces in between for what she has lost.</p><p>"He promises he'll find you."</p><p>Azu doesn't open her eyes. She lifts her fingers and feels the grains of sand fall away, one by one, until she holds only cold air in her palm.</p><p>She settles her fingers on her chest and feels everything she is beating in tandem with the waves.</p><p>Azu doesn't say anything for what feels like hours, simply listening to her companion's answering silence. She feels the person-shaped space of empty air pressed against her side.</p><p>Eventually, Azu realizes she feels tears roll down her cheeks and hit the sand. She hopes with all her heart that the wave that brings them to sea is a gentle one.</p><p>She...</p><p>She whispers something to the dark behind her eyelids.</p><p>Three quiet words, nestling among the stories in the firmament. Syllables tucking themselves beneath a wave and gently parting the foam with their fingers.</p><p>She feels the ghost of fingertips caress her cheek and wipe away a tear.</p><p>Azu shivers, and Azu cries. It's quiet, very quiet, but the waves sway and sob for her.</p><p>They stay that way until her tears dry, and then Azu opens her eyes. She sits up.</p><p>The ocean is just as she left it. There's nothing beside her except her drink.</p><p>She shudders and heads back towards the village with slow, silent steps.</p><p>Above her, the stars blink knowingly and cradle those three words in their arms.</p><p> </p><p>Thousands of years in the past, a young woman sits on a rooftop.</p><p>She looks up at the night sky, full of stars, and listens to a story.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>BWAAH I LOVE THEEEMMMM.... I swear this started out as a pulpy fun love confession, I'm just LIKE THIS.<br/>Thank you so much for reading!!! Comments are treasured and appreciated and I hoard them like an ill-mannered dragon.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>